Highland Archive Service offers a range of activities and events for all ages across our four archive centres and online. Find out what’s on and how you can join in…

January to March 2023

Exhibition: String / Lines - unravelling the story of string

The string / lines exhibition pulls together artefacts, stories, traditions and new artwork pieces inspired by this wealth of evidence gathered from a wide variety of sources all relating to string. The exhibition is the culmination of the year long project which explored string making for over 50,000 years.

We collaborated with organisations, artists and archaeologists including – Skye and Lochalsh Archive Centre, ATLAS arts and Viewfield Garden Collective, the artists include, poet Katharine Macfarlane and the archaeologists include Dr. Tuija Kirkinen, Dr. Susanna Harris and Dr. Karen Hardy

For further information please contact Skye and Lochalsh Archive Centre on [email protected] or 01478614078

Frank Quitely in conversation with Prof. Laurence Grove

Join Skye and Lochalsh Archive Service as we rediscover the wit, charm and general hilarity of Angus Og!

To celebrate the recent gift of a collection of original Angus Og drawings from creator Ewan Bain’s daughter, we are hosting this event in prtnership with cartoon expert Prof. Laurence Grove of The University of Glasgow and Frank Quietly, one of Scotland’s leading contemporary comic book artists who has created work for major titles and household names such as ‘Judge Dredd’, Marvel’s ‘X-Men’ and DC Comics’ ‘Superman’ and ‘Batman’.

Join us at Staffin Hallto view some of the original cartoon strips, to share memories of reading Angus Og or maybe to discover the tales of Drambeg for the first time. Discover more about the importance of Angus Og as a reflection of Scotland’s social history, where it sits within the lexicon of European comics traditions and help us shape how the collection could support the future development of Skye and Staffin.

There will be tea, coffee and home baking from The Hungry Gull, the opportunity to mix, mingle and meet and a chance to create your own comics (for children and adults alike!) at an informal drop-in creation station.

The Angus Og Project at Skye and Lochalsh Archive Centre is supported by Scottish Government National Islands Plan Funding.

Archive Afternoons

Joint the archive team at Nucleus: The Nuclear and Caithness Archives every Wednesday to explore the past, reminisce with friends and enjoy a cuppa and a biscuit. Each week archives from our collections will be on display in the public searchroom.

Everyone is invited to come and explore. Tea, coffee and biscuits will be available in The Hub at the front of the building, alongside displays of digitised vidoes and photographs showing Caithness in the past.

For further information please contact Nucleus: The Nuclear and Caithness Archives on [email protected] or 01955 602 444

String Ceilidh

Explore stories, poems and music related to string and traditional

rope making, welcome to share your own stories or artefacts

Explore the history of string making with local materials and listen, make and share stories and songs with us at this pop-up exhibition where you can explore the archives and get creative.

Bring your own materials and hand skills.

This is a free event with donations for tea and cake going towards hall funds.

For further information please contact Skye and Lochalsh Archive Centre on [email protected] or 01478 614078

Online Exhibitions

Our online exhibitions are curated by our archive teams from all four archive centres. Using our rich and varied collections, the exhibitions cover an array of topics from The Battle of The Braes to the history of modern education in Scotland. To explore our online exhibitions click on any image below.

Learn With Lorna

Learn With Lorna, our series of short films about the documents in our collections, is broadcast weekly on Facebook with all films subsequently made available on the High Life Highland YouTube channel.

All the films to date can be found here.

What’s On…